An Open Letter From Jim and Jean McMeans

We are concerned for the future of our beautiful Wimberley Valley.

A slick developer is in town and has bought 675 acres out of the old True Ranch just west of Wimberley on RR 2325. He and his wife are proposing to develop the property into urban density, one-acre lots which, when built out, will total 430-plus homes. He has dammed several creeks to create private lakes as amenities to his proposed development, has cleared wide swaths of native vegetation for dirt roads, and is already asking people to option lots before Hays County has even begun a preliminary plat review. His sales manager on site has told visitors that the developer is seeking to expand his property by an additional 500 acres, which could add another 350 homes.

The developer has powerful friends in the Texas Legislature (Senator Jeff Wentworth and Representative Patrick Rose) who very quietly sponsored legislation to create a Municipal Utility District (True Ranch MUD #1) that covers 465 acres of the property. The District is empowered to levy property taxes, to build roads and other public infrastructure, set water rates and issue debt to build water lines, and condemn land through eminent domain powers. All these powers were given to the District by the passage of Senate Bill 3 – Article X in the 2007 Legislative Session. This process could have been done through a petition to the Hays County Commissioners Court, but going to the Commissioners Court would have exposed the process to public scrutiny, and, undoubtedly, to some serious questions that have yet to be asked.

The big question for this proposed urban style development is a reliable source of water for domestic use and for fire protection. The developer says he has three water supply options for the proposed 430 homes. These are: 1) Wimberley Water Supply Corporation (well water); 2) Aqua Texas (well water); and 3) Importing water by pipeline from the Canyon Lake area. For the short term the developer has told visitors that he can drill a commercial well on the property to serve the first phase of 72 lots.

Water supply experts in Hays County have said that demand now being placed on the southern portion of the Trinity Aquifer by commercial wells and the approximately 2,500 existing residential wells exceeds its reliable capacity under drought conditions. All the options above, except the pipeline from Canyon Lake, would dramatically increase demand on the Trinity Aquifer and put existing water supply for homes in Wimberley, Woodcreek, Woodcreek North, and outlying areas in jeopardy. The plan by the developer to consider groundwater to supply the proposed homes is, in our opinion, irresponsible.

Current Hays County Subdivision regulations do not require the developer to demonstrate that he has a reliable source of water for domestic use and fire protection until the final plat stage – very late in the game. Because of the limitation of the Trinity Aquifer to supply adequate groundwater for this huge development, we recommend that concerned property owners in Southern Hays County contact their elected officials and ask them to stop this development before it dries up local residential and commercial wells and makes Jacob’s Well, Blue Hole, and Cypress Creek go dry.

These developers need to be told by this community that we will not tolerate an urban style development of one-acre lots that will not only jeopardize our water supply, but will overload our schools, and will limit rainfall recharge into the aquifer thus impacting the springs which feed the area creeks and the Blanco River. Cielo Ranch on Purgatory Road was developed by the same people at a density of 8 acres to 21 acres per lot. We believe that the True Ranch project would be acceptable with a minimum lot size of 10 acres and with deed restrictions that the homes must be built with rainwater collection systems for their domestic water supply.

Please help stop a small city from being built just west of Wimberley. Thank you.

Jim, a civil engineer, and his wife Jean live off RR 2325, nearby the proposed subdivision.